OASA 2014 Mite Rep tournament - featuring the Caveman
This past weekend, the Caveman played in his first "rep" tournament - the OASA Mite Boys Provincial (U10) in Springbrook, near Marmora.
Caveman played with the Augusta team, made up of Spencerville, Westport and Athens kids, plus him. He had a great time with an excellent bunch of kids and very supportive coaching staff which included Scott Rice and Westport legend Mike "Bundy" Seed.
His team went 1-3, losing to host Springbrook, Napanee (coached by Cory Brooks) and Springfield (coached by Todd Winkworth) and defeating Kitchener.
The level of play was quite high for mites, with some excellent pitching, fielding and hitting on display.
As I was at the Squirt Select Provincials with Fitzroy Junior on Saturday, I wasn't able to make it to the Mite tournament until Sunday. When I asked Caveman how it went with Mrs Fastball he mentioned some issues with finding Springbrook and said "You know mommy, she isn't very good at geometry."
In the opener against Springbrook, Caveman reached on a walk. Then, on a wild pitch he used his blazing speed (note: not blazing speed at all) to take second base - but not before tripping over his own shoes and having to belly crawl the last 10 feet to the bag. He claims there was a hole in the basepath. Uh huh, sure. His coach took note and made sure to let me know in a tweet that "Caveman had a bit of unorthodox slide into 2nd. Reminded me of you."
After the win against Kitchener, I got a phone call from Caveman. He was so excited he didn't let me get a word in edgewise: "Daddy, they let me pitch I threw two innings and got all six batters out and two were strikeouts and they didn't get a hit or a run and there were four pop flies and we caught them all and we won the game and now it's raining but it was a good game and I pitched two innings and they didn't get a run off me!"
In the first game on Sunday against Napanee, Augusta was in tough. The Napanee team had very strong hitters and they pounded the ball. The Caveman went in to pitch for an inning and was hit hard. No walks, but lots of very hard hit balls. After several runs were scored, the coach asked him if he still wanted to stay in. He nodded "yes", so continued to pitch. A couple of batters later, he decided it would be a good idea to try a change up - and the line drive whizzed by his head just missing his face by about 18 inches. Immediately after that, he gave the nod to the coach and moved over to third base!
I was proud of him though, he got right back on the horse and pitched a good inning in the final game of the tournament against Springfield, albeit wearing a facial protector that Mrs Fastball calls his "Hannibal Lecter" mask. That game was a very well played match, a 6.5 inning game played in about 1 h 45. Pretty good for mites.
I must say, it's nerve-wrecking to sit in the stands and watch your son bat, pitch, field, etc. You just live and die with every play. When I coach his team, I can stay preoccupied with all the things that have to be done, but as just a "fan" it's very hard on the nerves. Experienced fastball dads that read this blog - does it get easier? Do you feel just as queasy watching your 20-something son play in the Junior Nationals or ISC Worlds as you did in his first mites tourney? I sure hope it gets easier.....
All in all a great experience for a nine year old, one which he and his parents enjoyed.
Caveman played with the Augusta team, made up of Spencerville, Westport and Athens kids, plus him. He had a great time with an excellent bunch of kids and very supportive coaching staff which included Scott Rice and Westport legend Mike "Bundy" Seed.
His team went 1-3, losing to host Springbrook, Napanee (coached by Cory Brooks) and Springfield (coached by Todd Winkworth) and defeating Kitchener.
The level of play was quite high for mites, with some excellent pitching, fielding and hitting on display.
As I was at the Squirt Select Provincials with Fitzroy Junior on Saturday, I wasn't able to make it to the Mite tournament until Sunday. When I asked Caveman how it went with Mrs Fastball he mentioned some issues with finding Springbrook and said "You know mommy, she isn't very good at geometry."
In the opener against Springbrook, Caveman reached on a walk. Then, on a wild pitch he used his blazing speed (note: not blazing speed at all) to take second base - but not before tripping over his own shoes and having to belly crawl the last 10 feet to the bag. He claims there was a hole in the basepath. Uh huh, sure. His coach took note and made sure to let me know in a tweet that "Caveman had a bit of unorthodox slide into 2nd. Reminded me of you."
After the win against Kitchener, I got a phone call from Caveman. He was so excited he didn't let me get a word in edgewise: "Daddy, they let me pitch I threw two innings and got all six batters out and two were strikeouts and they didn't get a hit or a run and there were four pop flies and we caught them all and we won the game and now it's raining but it was a good game and I pitched two innings and they didn't get a run off me!"
In the first game on Sunday against Napanee, Augusta was in tough. The Napanee team had very strong hitters and they pounded the ball. The Caveman went in to pitch for an inning and was hit hard. No walks, but lots of very hard hit balls. After several runs were scored, the coach asked him if he still wanted to stay in. He nodded "yes", so continued to pitch. A couple of batters later, he decided it would be a good idea to try a change up - and the line drive whizzed by his head just missing his face by about 18 inches. Immediately after that, he gave the nod to the coach and moved over to third base!
I was proud of him though, he got right back on the horse and pitched a good inning in the final game of the tournament against Springfield, albeit wearing a facial protector that Mrs Fastball calls his "Hannibal Lecter" mask. That game was a very well played match, a 6.5 inning game played in about 1 h 45. Pretty good for mites.
I must say, it's nerve-wrecking to sit in the stands and watch your son bat, pitch, field, etc. You just live and die with every play. When I coach his team, I can stay preoccupied with all the things that have to be done, but as just a "fan" it's very hard on the nerves. Experienced fastball dads that read this blog - does it get easier? Do you feel just as queasy watching your 20-something son play in the Junior Nationals or ISC Worlds as you did in his first mites tourney? I sure hope it gets easier.....
All in all a great experience for a nine year old, one which he and his parents enjoyed.
Labels: Caveman, minor, OASA, Tournament
posted by fitzroyfastball | 8/19/2014 10:59:00 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home